Rich, you said it has nothing to do with being your turn, yet the name of the thread is "I guess it was my turn."

For me, this is a perfect example of not being prepared for the worst. I have heard officials say that coaches are problems, not problems and many other things. We should be prepared to handle the situation for that particular game. It doesn't matter how coaches normally act if they are acting like a fool on a particular night.

It was my turn.....to have a howler monkey. That's all I meant by my admittedly vague title.

I don't go into a game being prepared for the worst. To me it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Every coach is assumed to be a professional, adult person until he/she proves otherwise.

I get a coach like this maybe twice a year at most. Having both officials try once (after ignoring the comment the first time or two to see if he'd settle in)to work with a coach neither of us has seen before and then calling a technical at the end of the first quarter isn't being prepared to handle situations? Tough crowd, Tom.

Yeah, I am slower to respond than some on this board, it appears.

I will say comment on what you just said. In the game where I had the first time situation for me, going into this game I had T'd up the coach on the home team the last game I had him. Every time I have had this coach he was been bordering on being a complete azz but never did anything that crossed the line or exceeded my tolerance level or the level of my partners. I have had this coach several times over the past 3 years either being assigned in this conference or in a tournament we both attend. I even told this coach "Every time I work your games, you are complaining at me and that needs to stop." Even the last game I had him he was an angel most of the game but he was losing in the second half and his kids were getting out of hand and he made a smart azz comment and I had enough. So going into this I told my partners of my history with this coach and let them know they might have to help me out because I did not want to be put into a situation where I was going after this coach.

On the other hand the visiting coach has a very bad reputation of getting out of hand and getting T'd up by many officials. I personally have never had a problem with him in the two previous games I officiated for him and my partners and I talked about him as well. So we talked about that extensively in our pre-game and it showed how things were addressed when the game was a nut cutter and we were calling a lot of fouls against both teams in very critical situations. We were on top of most blow-ups from the coach. I agree that we do not want to penalize a coach because they have been a jerk in the past, but you need to be aware if they have a pattern of behavior that might affect judgments on when or when not to T them later in the game.

Peace

Twice a Night
 

I'm jealous. I am happy if only 2 out of the 4 coaches are howler monkeys....